Watch out -- the closing date on this one is very soon:----Job Opportunity: Research Fellow (Vetus Latina Iohannes)

A vacancy is now being advertised for a Research Fellow to assist in the preparation and publication of an edition of the Old Latin versions of the Gospel according to John.

The Vetus Latina Iohannes project has been running at the University of Birmingham for a number of years, and has already made available an electronic edition of the surviving Old Latin manuscripts of John at http://www.iohannes.com/vetuslatina/ .

The main duties of the Fellow will include assisting in the compilation of an electronic database of gospel citations in Church Fathers, the analysis of this material, and the preparation of a printed edition to be published in the 'Vetus Latina' series.

Applicants must have a PhD in a relevant subject, an excellent knowledge of Latin, the ability to learn relevant IT skills quickly, and the ability to work effectively as a member of a team. A good working knowledge of Greek, experience of database design and maintenance, and experience of working on a research project are desirable.

The post-holder will be a member of the University's Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing (www.itsee.bham.ac.uk).

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

There is now some news about the DVD release of The Passion (my coverage) including the cover (left); click to enlarge. There is no news yet on what extras will be available. This will be a UK release, already listed at Amazon.co.uk and the BBC Shop, the latter giving a release date of 6 October. The American release will presumably wait until after the broadcast on HBO, probably next year.

A “unique treasure” of Biblical history is to be made available online for the first time through a collaborative project between The British Library and three other major international institutions.

The Codex Sinaiticus, considered to be the world’s most important Biblical manuscript, dates from the fourth century and is thought to be the earliest, most complete Christian bible.

The manuscript is however split up and housed in four different locations - London, Sinai, St Petersburg and Leipzig. This means that pages from one book of the bible manuscript might be housed in two or more different repositories . . .

There is a holding page on the official site in German and English. The 24 hour museum article gives a little more detail:

While the project intends to have all parts of the Codex Sinaiticus online by July 2009, this year’s initial launch will give access to 106 pages held by the British Library. These include the complete Book of Psalms and the Gospel of Mark.

A further 28 fragment pages from the British Library collection will also be added. These pages enable the online completion of a further six Biblical texts when joined with the parts of the manuscript housed at Leipzig University. These texts include 1 Chronicles, Jeremiah and Lamentations.

As well as translations of some parts of the manuscript from the Greek into English and German, the website will also allow users to explore cross-referencing between both the transcription and the image of the manuscript itself. For instance, pointing at a word on the transcription will highlight the equivalent word in the image.

I will add a link and a notice when the time comes on Thurdsay. For more on the project see:

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

More from Radio 4: Beyond Belief back on 23 June dealt with Paul. No one else on the blogs has mentioned it so far (Surely I am the only biblioblogger who listens to Radio 4). The contributors are Paula Gooder, Gerald O'Collins and Ed Kessler, all three great choices, especially Paula! You can catch it again on Listen Again from the previous link (just select 23 June St Paul from the drop down menu). If you don't yet subscribe to the podcast, you can do so at Beyond Belief: Podcast. One choice question that gets discussed: would Paul have circumcised his son if he had one?

In recent weeks there has been an interesting discussion on several of the e-lists relevant to our field about whether, in fact, the e-lists are now dying. Andrew Bernhard has led the charge on this one and today posts a great summary post, also looking to the future. His answer to his original question is that the e-lists are not dying but that they are going through a period of transition. If you have not been following the discussion, you may be one of the reasons for the downturn on a lot of the lists. Here's the link to Andrew's post as it appears on Xtalk:

Andrew argues that many of the e-lists are in crisis, something he demonstrates by looking at figures on the number of posts, mapping a steady decline. But he suggests that the e-lists are not dying but are in transition, and there may still be a future for them.

I don't think that that the answers to this interesting question are straightforward, but I know that for myself and other fellow bloggers, blogging is one of the reasons for the changes in the e-lists. Many of us prefer to blog than to write an email. If I were to track my own e-list participation, I reckon it would have been much higher before I began blogging in 2003.

But I don't think that the growth of blogging is the major factor. Rather, our attitudes to email in general have changed. There was a phase when email was the latest thing. It was exciting, a whole new world of communication. Remember the thrill of receiving emails in those early days? When I joined b-greek nad Xtalk back in 1996, a large part of the experience was the thrill of receiving electronic communications -- this was not like anything else I had experienced. Back then it was fun to send and receive emails, and to do your scholarship that way. Not now. When I get back from time away from the computer, I don't think, "Oh great, tons of emails!" I think, "Oh no! Email mountain! How will I ever get through all of those?" Email was once exciting but now it is oppressive. Now we do everything by email and attention to our inbox is all about finding ways to get through it as quickly as possible. We are looking for excuses to by-pass, delete as many messages as possible. E-list material has to be relegated when there are tons of personal emails to work one's way through. I suspect that the growth of email oppression is in fact the largest factor in the changing face of several of the e-lists, not least as academics receive a larger proportion of emails than many others.

Monday, July 14, 2008

“The story I now commence is rich in vicissitudes, grim with warfare, torn by civil strife, a tale of horror even during times of peace”. So reads page one of The Histories by the Roman historian Tacitus and it doesn’t disappoint.

Tacitus’ Rome is a hotbed of sex and violence, of excessive wealth and senatorial corruption. His work is a pungent study in tyranny and decline that has influenced depictions of Rome, from Gibbon’s Decline and Fall to Robert Graves’ I, Claudius.

But is it a true picture of the age or does Tacitus’ work present the tyranny and decadence of Rome at the expense of its virtues? And to what extent, when we look at the Roman Empire today, do we still see it through his eyes?

Contributors

Catharine Edwards, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London

Ellen O’Gorman, Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Bristol

Maria Wyke, Professor of Latin at University College London

You can listen again on the web, or you do what I do and download the podcast. In fact, why not subscribe while you are at it?

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

I am a big fan of the "Biblical Studies Carnival", which aims to gather together highlights each month from across the blogosphere on posts broadly relevant to Biblical Studies. Two have recently been published back to back, a treat for enthusiasts for the genre:

As I have commented before, the more the bibliogging world expands, the more helpful these carnivals become. Unfortunately, the more the biblioblogging world expands, the more difficult it is for the authors to gather together the relevant information. Some go searching extensively; others, quite reasonably, limit their carnivals just to the things submitted to them. I am afraid that I have never offered to do one of these, and I have twice turned down requests to do one. I know that I would simply not have time to do a decent job, something that fills me with admiration for those who continue to produce the goods. Thanks again to all concerned.

They are all worth reading, but I loved this in particular from Canon Tim Roper:

Henry would arrive, panting, straight from the hockey field, at 4.02 for a 4pm supervision. In his rooms he used to dash behind a screen while we sat demurely. “Prophesy!” he would call, and we would read our essays to a blank screen from which emerged sounds of one changing. Finally, Henry would appear, dapper as ever, and deliver himself of learned thoughts about Bultmann, form-criticism, or whatever. Thirty years later I met him. He still remembered.